Security Planner: a peer-reviewed tool to help you figure out your personal digital security plan

From the Boing Boing Shop

Follow Us

The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab (previously) is one of the most effective, most trustworthy expert groups when it comes to investigating the abuse of computers to effect surveillance and sabotage, so the launch of Security Planner, the Lab's peer-reviewed tool that guides you through the creation of a personal security plan, is a game-changing event.

I just went through the planning process. It took about two minutes, and delivered two dozen pieces of incredibly good, easy-to-follow, clearly worded advice.

It's been a good year for online security advice, and Citizen Lab's guide is really the cherry on top of it all.

What's more, it's not a fire-and-forget snapshot of security advice in December 2017: the Lab has pledged resources to keep it current from moment to moment, based on their experience investigating breaches and uncovering wrongdoing.

Security Planner recommendations are made by a committee of experts in digital security and have gone through a rigorous peer review evaluation, led by the Citizen Lab. We're supported by a community of organizations, including non-profits, educational institutions, and foundations, and never accept funds or services in exchange for making a recommendation. You can read more about our who’s behind it and our philosophy here.

The principal motivation for Security Planner was our shared experiences (and frustrations) when we are regularly asked the question: “what could average people do to protect themselves online”? Although there are some good guides out there, there is also a lot of conflicting advice. Whose guide do you trust? Also, while there are some great resources for high-risk individuals and groups, there is not much out there that fits the needs of average users. Meanwhile, there are some simple steps everyone could do to boost their online security. Adding to our frustration is that guides are often out-of-date, or dense with text.

We wanted to address that gap by creating an accessible, personalized set of recommendations that are kept up to date by an expert peer review group.

At Defcon, Tencent's Wu HuiYu and Qian Wenxiang presented Breaking Smart Speakers: We are Listening to You, detailing their work in successfully exploiting an Amazon Alexa speaker, albeit in a very difficult-to-achieve fashion.

Josh Mitchell's Defcon presentation analyzes the security of five popular brands of police bodycams (Vievu, Patrol Eyes, Fire Cam, Digital Ally, and CeeSc) and reveals that they are universally terrible, though the Digital Ally models are the least bad of the batch, as Wired's Lily Hay Newman reports.

Adam Guerbuez is a cryptocurrency evangelist whose Youtube channel is full of videos promoting cryptocurrency trading; when he got a Twitter message from a scammer promising to send him free Ethereum coins, he asked the scammer if they could talk about the scam.

Traveling isn’t always the most comfortable experience, but at least you have your music to keep you company on those long flights. That is, until your chatty neighbor and that crying baby three seats over drown out your playlist. These Paww WaveSound 3 Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones block up to 20 decibels of audio, so you can […]

SEO can be a fickle creature, but it can work in your favor—you just need the right tools. When it comes to getting your site on that coveted first page of Google, SERPstash Premium simplifies the process with 21 user-friendly tools designed to break down your page’s performance and show you where you can improve. Lifetime […]

Running a Shopify store is a great way to net some extra cash on the side or—if you really know what you’re doing—replace your 9-to-5 altogether. However, success doesn’t come naturally, and newcomers tend to receive mixed results when starting on their own. This E-Commerce Bootcamp can help start your Shopify venture off on the right […]